Contact details

Dr Vlad Mykhnenko is a scholar, committed to the advancement of geographical political economy, focussing on modern capitalist social formations as spatially uneven, highly variegated, and crisis-driven systems. His work is interdisciplinary, built upon the theoretical underpinnings, epistemological insights, and combining research methods of Economic Geography, Urban and Regional Studies, and Comparative Political Economy. Vlad explores the interrelationship between spatial imbalances in production and consumption, power inequalities, physical and material manifestations of urban growth and decline, and their impact upon sustainable territorial development and social cohesion.

He publishes in leading journals in Economics, Environmental Studies, Geography, Public Administration, and Urban Studies, including the Journal of Economic Geography, Environment and Planning A, Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy, European Urban and Regional Studies, and Cities.

In recognition of Vlad’s world-leading expertise in sustainable urban development, in 2015 he was elected by the United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development (UN Habitat) to join a group of policy experts, globally tasked with drafting The New Urban Agenda. This outcome document, adopted by the United Nations Habitat III Conference in October 2016, will guide the efforts around urbanisation of a wide range of actors — nation states, city and regional leaders, international development funders, United Nations programmes, and civil society — for the next 20 years, extending its impact far into the future.

Qualifications

PhD in Political Economy, 2005: Darwin College, University of Cambridge, UK

MA in International Relations and European Studies, 1999: Central European University, Budapest, Hungary

MA in International Relations, 1998: Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Ukraine

BA in International Relations, 1996: Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Ukraine

Biography

Vlad Mykhnenko studied International Relations and European Studies at Eastern Europe’s top universities - Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv (Ukraine) and Central European University in Budapest (Hungary), before graduating in 2005 with a PhD from Cambridge.

He then moved to a Research Fellowship at the Centre for Public Policy for Regions, University of Glasgow (2005-2008). After having won a major European Union’s 7th Framework programme research grant on the governance of shrinkage within a European context in 2009 (see Shrink Smart), Vlad joined the School of Geography at the University of Nottingham. In 2012, he was appointed Lecturer in Human Geography (Urban Adaptation & Resilience) at the School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, UoB.

In 2014, Vlad held a Visiting Professorship at Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Almaty (Kazakhstan).

Teaching

Vlad has taught undergraduate and postgraduate students at a number of universities both in the United Kingdom and continental Europe, including Kyiv Taras Shevchenko, Kyiv Mohyla Business School, Cambridge, Glasgow, and Nottingham.

He leads and/or contributes to the following research-led modules and teaching activities in the following topics:

Economic geography: cities and regions - (Undergraduate)

Dissertations - (Undergraduate)

Personal tutorials - (Undergraduate and Postgraduate)

Theoretical themes for geographers (Postgraduate)

Doing human geography (Postgraduate)

Vlad’s teaching philosophy is focussed on active learning, using a variety of methods to encourage discussion and interaction on the issues the course present. His application of technology-enhanced learning (TEL) tools and techniques and the results of newly-introduced TEL interventions in a lecture theatre are described in the following peer-reviewed pedagogical publication:

Sustainable urban development in the Global South: the social production of urban space; global political economy and the re-scaling of housing markets in Brazil; urban shrinkage and public policy in China and Ukraine.

Regional development, public policy, and territorial cohesion: economic convergence and divergence; the spatial distribution of national income, local government finance, and fiscal federalism; regional governance, devolution, and territorial cohesion.

Vlad’s research has been funded by the Research Councils UK (the Economic and Social Research Council and the Arts and Humanities Research Council), the European Union’s 7th Framework Programme (FP7 - Socio-economic Sciences and Humanities), Brazil’s State of São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP), and a number of universities and charitable foundations, including the Open Society Institute (OSI), the Regional Studies Association (RSA), the Central European University, and the Universities of Cambridge and Birmingham. Overall, serving as Principal Investigator or Co-Investigator, Vlad has contributed to obtaining over £1,544,339 in research-related funding (actual contributions adjusted for inflation), thus helping to generate on average £165,442 annually in net research income (in 2016 prices) over the past 10 years.

Vlad’s grants include:

2016-2018: Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC, UK) Development Grant - PaCCS Innovation Awards on Conflict and International development Ukraine's hidden tragedy: understanding the outcomes of population displacement from the country's war-torn regions (Ref AH/P008305/1): £78,162 [FEC £96,757]. Co-Investigator.

2000: The Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, University of Cambridge, Fieldwork Grant. £330. Doctoral Researcher.

1999: Darwin College Research Travel Bursary, University of Cambridge. £200. Doctoral Researcher.

Doctoral research

PhD title: The Political Economy of Post-communism: A Comparison of Upper Silesia (Poland) and the Donbas (Ukraine). Darwin College, University of Cambridge.

Published as Mykhnenko, V. (2011) The Political Economy of Post-Communism: The Donbas and Upper Silesia in Transition. Lambert, Saarbrücken. Available here.

Other activities

Vlad is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a Fellow of the Regional Studies Association.

He is co-ordinator of the Urban Shrinkage, Adaptation, and Resilience Initiative: a multi-disciplinary enterprise bringing together over 170 urban scholars, activists, and practitioners working on new ways and means of building resilient and resourceful cities - urban living environments capable of withstanding and successfully responding to the immediate shocks and long-standing effects of the economic depression, demographic shift, and human-induced climate change (urban-shrinkage-and-resilience@jiscmail.ac.uk).

Nationally, Vlad was recently invited to speak at the Universities of Newcastle (CURDS, 2016), the University of Birmingham Centre for Russian, European, and Eurasian Studies Annual Conference at Cumberland Lodge, Windsor Great Park (2016), and Aston Centre for Research into International Business jointly with The European Association for Comparative Economic Studies (2013).

Vlad is currently serving as Subject External Examiner (2014-2018) for the University of Manchester’s MA in Urban Studies and related Subjects at Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences and Programme External Examiner (2015-2018) for the University of Manchester’s BA in Management in the Creative Arts at Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences.

Mykhnenko, V., Padvalkava, K., Kuzmenko, L., Soldak, M., & Myedvyedyev, D. (2012) The governance of shrinkage in Donetsk and Makiivka (Ukraine): the case of local government finance. Shrink Smart: The Governance of Shrinkage within a European Context (Revised ed., 118 pp.). Birmingham: School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham.

Mykhnenko, V. (2004) The Ukrainian Ferrous Metals Industry (3 pp.). Budapest: The Central European University Center for Policy Studies and Open Society Institute.

Mykhnenko, V. (2004) The Ukrainian Ferrous Metals Industry: Settling Old Problems, Facing New Challenges. CPS International Policy Fellowship Program (8 pp.). Budapest: The Central European University Center for Policy Studies and Open Society Institute.

Mykhnenko, V. (2004) Rusting Away? The Ukrainian Iron and Steel Industry in Transition. CPS International Policy Fellowship Program (55 pp.). Budapest: The Central European University Center for Policy Studies and Open Society Institute. Download here.